Star Trek: TNG Reviews - From Start to Finish!

Face it, Trek just doesn't want (or doesn't know how to write) main characters in adult relationships.

The O'Brien's were a fluke.

Miles should've shown Keiko the pimp hand more often. What a bitch!

They were easy because they were background characters.

Exactly. Writers always want their main characters "open for new romances" or some such nonsense. The result is a startling lack of adult relationships on TV.

It was always astonishing that, at the beginning of each modern Trek, none of the main characters were married yet they were all very old enough.

Sisko was married (at least until about 2 minutes into the episode), Jadzia was barely old enough (supposed to be, what, 22, 24 at the beginning of DS9?) to be married, Crusher had been married, Janeway was married, Tuvok was married, Kim had a fiance, Wesley and Jake weren't old enough... and that's not counting the problems with having Data, Worf, the Doctor, or Odo being married.

TNG
Picard - no and who knows why
Riker - no, player in name only
Data - obviously no
Geordi - couldn't get a date if he tried
Crusher - husband conveniently killed
Worf - no
Wesley - hahahaha
Yar - no
Troi - no

DS9
Sisko - wife killed, though at least he remarries a decade later
Kira - too busy being mad
Dax - no, though does
Worf - no, though marries Dax
O'Brien - YES! OMG! YES!
Odo - too liquidy
Quark - couldn't afford the 5 year contract
Rom - had been married
Nog - a boy
Jake - also a boy
Bashir - no

VOY
Janeway - engaged I thought
Chuckles - no
Paris - no
Torres - no (though married Paris)
Kim - see Wesley
Neelix - had a thing for Kes
Kes - had a thing for Neelix, among others
7o9 - too robotic
Doctor - not really a character
Tuvok - hmm....maybe he was married

So that's 2 characters out of dozens who were married when the show started.

Then of course there was the Troi/Riker "relationship," which the writers wanted to ignore in favor of giving them both chances at other romances.

"Not while we serve aboard the same ship, Will." Oh, fuck that! How many married couples with children were aboard that ship?

It was crazy on TNG all the ideas of hookups between characters that they only played once and forgot.

Picard/Crusher
Worf/Troi
Riker/Troi
Riker/Worf

Yeah but if you really want to break it down he got married during a TNG episode and he was already way past your average age for a married person. So he was a main character on DS9 but he got his start in TNG and wasn't married at the time.

Also, why didn't you include TOS?

Kirk - no
Spock - no
McCoy - divorced? or was that just from the new movie?
Uhura - no
Chekov - young enough to be understandably single
Scotty - no
Sulu - no

Hell... throw in Enterprise... I don't know the characters but I don't think any of them but T'Pol was married.

He was divorced in TOS, it was briefly mentioned as a throwaway line in one ep, IIRC.

Yeah, none of the ENT members were married.

What's the message? Starfleet isn't the place for family? Yet, family was a theme of all the shows? I just don't know.

Maybe marriage is considered a quaint and outdated ritual by the 23rd century?

Y'know, kind of like how they "cured" the gay gene (since there are no homosexuals in the Trek future) and how they wiped out all the Arabs (since there are no Arabs in the Trek future, either).

Dr. Bashir was Arab!

Spock was engaged!
But his finace was a psycho bitch from hell and deviously tried to get him killed ar arrested.

Dysfunctional.

I question the truth to that given the man skirts in TNG Season 1...





In case the image is hidden by one of those blockers you can access it directly here: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/e/ee/Man_in_a_skant.jpg

Or this "lost" sequence from TOS.

[YT="Check the 2:45 Mark"]W-WA90u0f0Y[/YT]

Double post.

Janeway was engaged.
Chakotay was kind of dating Seska until she betrayed him.
Paris and Torres ended up married.
Kim had a girlfriend, he seemed pretty serious about her.
Seven had a boyfriend in Unimatrix Zero, but since it blew up....
Tuvok was married, but he had to spend his Pon Farr jerking it on the holodeck.
Ensign Wildman was married, her husband knocked her up with Naomi before they left spacedock.

You know waaaaaay too much about Voyager.

Hmmm.

He's a Lt. Mewa dual.

The girlfriend really likes Voyager. Enterprise too. We used to watch them during and after dinner when I worked evenings.

Final Mission

Wesley is finally ready to leave the Enterprise and enter Starfleet Academy. And for his final mission Picard drags him along to settle a dispute with some miners. But the ship they are on malfunctions and they crash land on Tatooine.

"What a desolate place this is..."

Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew must save a planet from a garbage scow. Really! This part of the plot was sort of interesting but nothing to really write about. Obviously, they save the planet. Why wouldn't space-faring societies automatically set their garbage scows on a course for their local sun or star? What is the point of letting their trash float through space... other than being giant dicks to the neighboring star systems?

But let's get back to Wesley and Picard. This is Wil Wheaton's final episode as a regular. From here on he becomes a recurring guest character. I won't say I'll miss him but he has grown up a lot since we were first introduced to the character. He really seems like a man in this episode and it is kind of astonishing to see how much development the character has gotten. It is one of the things I've enjoyed about watching this series in its proper sequence. He is really not the horrible character everyone makes him out to be and he hasn't been since season 1.

And the Wesley-Picard relationship that has existed since the pilot episode finally gets some resolution. They are basically father and son and the dialogue suggests as much. When Picard is injured, Wes finally gets a chance to take charge and show what he has learned. He must keep Picard alive and also deal with a stubborn miner named Dirgo who has been stranded on Tatooine with them. Oh, and he has to safegaurd some droids who carry vital data concerning the Empire's new battle station...

I'm not sure if I really understand why a fountain of water on an uninhabited planet would be protected by an energy shield. That almost seems like some sort of cruel joke someone left behind. It doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but I guess just getting the water right away would have been too easy and the episode would have ended earlier.

Anyway, this wasn't a great episode by any means. But it had some nice location shooting and was fairly entertaining. We also get our first mention of Starfleet Academy's groundskeeper, Boothsby. This is another character Voyager would steal from TNG. Ah, but I guess that is not a fair criticism. DS9 used lots of TNG characters.

Rating:

Wow. I just noticed that this is now the biggest thread that currently exists in Media Central! At least going back to 2007.

This thread has the most views and more replies than POTN's old 'Heroes' thread. And it has even spawned some similar threads to cover the other shows. Who'll take one for the team and review Star Trek: Voyager? Not I. I don't even own the DVDs and have no plans to buy them.

I'm glad everyone has found the thread so interesting so far! I've had fun re-watching the series although, in truth, it really feels like I'm watching it for the first time. I'm much older now and can actually appreciate the series more. I was only six or seven when the series debuted...

I'm curious how many WFers have been following along so far? I think I am roughly halfway through the series so it shouldn't be too much longer to the finish line...

Time for a new girlfriend.

Who?

The Loss

This is the first substantial Deanna Troi episode of season 4. And this episode probably does a better of job of trying to understand her character than any of her previous outings (Haven, The Child, The Price). Certainly, the premise of Deanna trying to cope without her special abilities is one worth exploring. And this was probably a more effective Troi-centric episode than any of the episodes I just mentioned. But I still wouldn't call it a great episode. It is simply passable.

What would happen if Deanna ever lost her powers? Surely, we have all wondered. Well, maybe we haven't. But in this episode we see how the loss of one her basic senses causes her severe emotional trauma. The normally pleasant Troi suddenly becomes quite angry and distressed... lashing out at Riker, Crusher, and even resigning as ship's counselor. She does not feel like she can adequately counsel her crewmates and she does not feel particularly useful to the captain in trying to understand a new species. She even gets angry at Geordi during a conference and stomps off in anger.

Speaking of Geordi... why the hell didn't he and Troi have a talk about this? Normally it annoys me when they focus on Geordi's disability and ignore other aspects of his personality. But this would have been the perfect opportunity to bring up his disability. He and Deanna could have bonded over their similar situations. I'm surprised the writers did not have them interact in this episode.

Instead Geordi gets saddled with even more technobabble. At the same time that Deanna loses her powers, the crew discover that the Enterprise has been caught up in a field of two-dimensional lifeforms who are dragging the ship into a cosmic string fragment... say what?

What the heck does that even mean? Maybe Stephen Hawking should have appeared in this episode so he could explain what all this means. I'm not sure what a cosmic string fragment is supposed to be and I seriously doubt a two-dimensional lifeform could exist in a three-dimensional universe. Surely it must have some sort of height. Even the atoms we are made up of are three dimensional. Anyway, I'm no astrophysicist so I'll just leave this discussion to someone else.

Getting back to Deanna, it is amusing that she ends up seeking counsel from Guinan. I've often felt that Guinan was a better couselor than Troi at times, although I do agree that the job of an actual pyschiatrist is somewhat more than just being a friendly ear. A true psychiatrist must diagnose a problem and render an appropriate treatment. Guinan is simply a friendly sort of barkeep who likes to listen to people. But she does help Troi with her crisis and Troi, in turn, suggests a possible course of action for dealing with the improbable two-dimensional lifeforms.

She gets her powers back and all is right with the world. This episode was merely okay. It didn't quite annoy me like Suddenly Human but I was close to falling asleep during some of the technobabble. Enough of this, please. I actually find it sort of insulting that they'd give an accomplished and enthusiastic actor like Levar Burton so much nonsense to deliver in every episode. Give the man something to do!

Anyway, this one was sort of entertaining and interesting so I'll let them skate by with this one. But Deanna still hasn't had one knockout episode yet in the series. Trivia alert! The Breen get their first mention in this episode. Notable since they eventually go on to play a larger role on DS9. They are actually first mentioned before the Cardassians or the Bajorans.

Rating:

Data's Day

Another strong Data episode, though I do feel they are starting to get into some repetitive territory. We get it already... Data doesn't understand about human behavior.

Still, this had some nice scattered moments and ideas. We meet Keiko for the first time and Chief Miles O'Brien finally gets some focus in this series. We learn that Data was the one that actually introduced Miles and Keiko, which is perhaps appropriate since their marriage was so rocky. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen this episode before because I thought they were always married on the show.

This episode is mostly made up of some nice, smaller moments. Data seeks dancing lessons from Doctor Crusher in preparation for O'Brien and Keiko's wedding. We meet Data's cat, Spot, for the first time although he/she is not referred to by name. We get another mention of Dr. Bruce Maddox and we learn that Data has been regularly communicating with him. Nice to see that they put their emnity behind them. Data also comments on his fellow crew members and we see what a typical day in the life is for Data.

Of note, he considers himself a kindred spirit to Worf and considers Troi his most distant friend and admits they probably aren't very comfortable with each other since she is all emotion and he lacks them. Oh, yes, we also meet the Enterprise's Bolian barber in this episode. At the wedding ceremony Picard gets to recite the same speech Kirk used in Balance Of Terror in order to unite the newlyweds.

We also meet a Vulcan ambassador who is really a Romulan spy. When the Enterprise attempts to retrieve her, they are surrounded by a small fleet of Warbirds. Picard loses this encounter and is forced to retreat.

A mostly pleasant episode. Light on plot but strong on characterization. And the first of two back-to-back episodes which develop the character of O'Brien. Methinks some planning is in the work for a new series.

Rating:

The Wounded

I'm calling this DS9 Episode Zero. Part I. This is the first of two episodes that act as primer material for the new series.

If a new Trek fan were to watch DS9 without watching TNG first, this is one of two episodes I would recommend as required viewing. This was a damn fine episode and a good template for many of the things DS9 would include. Cardassians? Miles Edward O'Brien? Federation ships and officers in conflict with one another? Marc Alaimo?

O'Brien is the perfect character to move over to DS9. Because we learn in this episode that he has a had a past history with the Cardassians and is not particularly fond of them. On DS9 he will have to deal with many, many Cardassians and he will have to deal intimately with their technical systems.

This is our first introduction to the Cardassian race, to their ships, and to their kanar. The Cardassian destroyer is a pretty unique looking ship. And makeup for the Cardassians is also fairly unique. Though there are some oddities. In this episode, they wear some funky helmets that we never see them wear on DS9. And Marc Alaimo's character, Gul Macet, has some facial hair! Maybe Gul Macet is a cousin of Gul Dukat or something?

We also get to see a Nebula class Starfleet vessel and we meet Captain Benjamin Maxwell, whom O'Brien considers one of the two finest Captains he has ever served with. I wonder where Sisko ranks with O'Brien? Unfortunately, Maxwell has gone 'round the bend and is fighting a personal war against the Cardassians, whom we learn recently concluded a war with the Federation. So in recent years the Federation has had conflict with the Cardassians, the Talarians (Suddenly Human), and the Tholians (The Icarus Factor). Interesting.

A Federation officer taking vengeance against an old enemy? Killing innocent people? Surely this can't be TNG. More reason to consider this a DS9ish episode.

And O'Brien's problems with Keiko have already started, one episode after their marriage. We learn that they don't seem to agree about much at the dinner table. Keiko likes traditional Japanese food, and O'Brien likes taters and other Irish food. We also learn that O'Brien doesn't necessarily hate Cardassians, but he hates that he became a killer because of them. Actually, this reminds me of his emotional breakdown in Hard Time, when he is forced to kill a friend and wonders what the difference is between a supposedly enlightened human being and any other violent, savage race. Indeed, much of DS9 was a reflection and repudiation of various TNG ideas. Flip sides of a coin. This episode is our first look at the other side of the Federation.

Excellent episode!

Rating:

Apparently the Enterprise was not needed in any of these conflicts for some reason.